Gretchen Walsh touched the wall at the Fort Lauderdale Open and stopped the clock at 54.33 seconds. It was, once again, a world record in the women's 100-metre butterfly. She swam the mark on the last day of the meet, held on the grounds of the International Swimming Hall of Fame. The swim marked the fourth time she has set the world record in the event, and she is now the owner of the top 13 performances in history.
Walsh sliced 27-hundredths of a second off the previous world record of 54.60 she set in the same Florida pool at a Pro Swim meeting last May. The pool has become her stage. One year after establishing a world record in the 100-metre butterfly during TYR Pro Series action, she was even better at the Fort Lauderdale Open, registering 54.33 on Saturday night. She brought the crowd to its feet, on a night when Katie Ledecky and Leon Marchand also won.
The margin is what sets the swim apart. Already the only woman under 55 seconds, the performance makes Walsh the fastest in history by more than a second, with Sarah Sjöström ranking second all-time at 55.48. That record, set at the 2016 Olympic Games, had withstood the attentions of Maggie MacNeil, Torri Huske, Zhang Yufei and Emma McKeon. Walsh has left the entire field behind.
How the gap opened
The trajectory is short and steep. When Sjöström broke the world record to win gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics at 55.48, the mark remained untouched for eight years. Walsh finally cracked it at the 2024 Olympic Trials, resetting the standard to 55.18, and has broken it three times since, all in the same facility. In under two years she moved the event from an eight-year stalemate to a solitary pursuit.
Her own account was measured. "There's never a time when it can't be done if you just don't put your mind to it," Walsh told reporters after the swim. "I didn't go to the beach today, because I was thinking maybe there could be something special tonight. I was feeling confident after my warm-up, put on a new suit, and let the good juju flow my way."
At 23, the American arrived in Fort Lauderdale already decorated. Walsh won three world titles in Singapore last year. The context around her performances has hardened into a single fact: no swimmer has held an event this completely. Thirteen of the fastest swims ever belong to one woman.
The record is hers again, chased only by herself.
